The present invention relates generally to fences, and more particularly, to a method of assembling fence sections together for easy installation. Fences have been used in various forms for thousands of years to protect and secure people, animals and land. Fences have also been used to exclude intruders. Specifically, farmers have used fences to contain live stock and domestic animals in a controlled area or to prevent predators from entering. While these functional fence uses continue today, fences are also used for decorative purposes such as on porches and around yards, decks and gardens.
The type of use a fence is intended to have will have an effect on the type of material used for the fence. Fencing material comes in a wide array of materials, traditionally including wood and wrought iron. However, wood fences tend to require extensive effort to build, need a lot of maintenance and can be difficult to remove or alter. Wrought iron fences also presents problems, such as rusting. Recently, plastic has been used in place of wood and metal because it is easier to install, needs little maintenance and is aesthetically appealing without the problems associated with wood and metal.
Fence construction and assembly is generally well known. The individual components of a fence are fastened to vertical posts using various types of connectors. Common connectors include nails, screws, bolts, wire and clips. Various connectors exist and are continually developed in order to provide ease to fence installation and maintenance.
One way of making fence installation easier is to pre-assemble fence sections (comprised of pickets assembled to rails) so that the consumer is able to purchase entire fence sections without having to install each picket and rail individually at the site. Fence sections have become quite popular because of their ease and reduced time in installation. All that is needed are fence sections and posts for each section to be secured to.
However, one of the problems associated with fence sections, especially fence sections made from vinyl and other plastics where the purchaser does not want visible hardware on the fence, is that the fence sections tend to come apart as the installer is removing them from the packaging box in which they may be shipped, or as he is transporting the fence section from the box to the site where the fence section is to be placed. This problem defeats the purpose and ease of fence sections since the installer must then take extra time to put the fence section back together before it is able to be installed.
Efforts have been made to solve this problem by gluing the fence pickets into channels of the rails. Screws, rivets or other fasteners have also been used to hold the individual fence pickets and rails together in the sections. However, these potential solutions have created additional problems. For example, the glue has a tendency to leak or to dry improperly so that the glue can be seen or the pickets are aligned improperly because the pickets shifted before the glue dried. This has caused gaps between the pickets and uneven pickets, without the ability to rearrange the already glued pickets of the fence sections. Screws, rivets and other fasteners have also been used to secure the pickets in place in the channels of the rails. This was not a satisfactory solution either since the screws, rivets and other fasteners were not aesthetically appealing and made the fence look less appealing due to the exposed hardware. Even fasteners constructed from plastic made the fence look unappealing. Removing the screws, rivets or other fasteners once the section was installed at the site seemed to be an option, but that took a lot of time and the holes were visible which again made the fence look unappealing.
Another problem with using glue, screws, rivets or other fasteners to hold the fence pickets in the channels of the rails of each fence section is that the vinyl fencing material tended to buckle or gap during various seasons. Vinyl and other plastic fencing material tends to contract in cold weather and expand in warm weather. When each individual picket is fastened in place, it is unable to move or shift as necessary to adjust for the expansion and contraction of the material when the weather changes. Without using any type of fasteners, the fence pickets could shift accordingly along the channels of the rails and adapt to the adjacent picket as dictated by the material expanding and contracting. However, if rail fasteners are not used, then this leads back to the problem of the fence sections not staying together as the installer removed the fence section from the box or as it was being moved from the box to the site where it was to be installed.
The present invention relates to a method of assembling fence sections so that installation of each section is improved and the problems associated with using glue, screws, rivets or other fasteners are avoided. The present invention is a method of assembling fence sections using at least one plastic band to secure the fence section components together so that the fence section does not fall apart as it is removed from the box or as it is transferred from the box to the site where it is to be installed. One or more plastic bands are placed around the assembled fence sections using an automatic banding machine preferably located at or on the assembly line. Banding machines are known, and may be purchased from companies such as Strapak Inc. in Hayword, Calif.
The fence assembling process may begin by the fence section components being assembled into a complete section on a flat surface at the beginning of the assembly line. The assembled fence section is then moved along the assembly line to a first area of rollers. The rollers aid in moving the fence section along the assembly line until it reaches the banding machine. The banding machine is of a size large enough to allow the fence section to move through it. Once the fence is in the banding machine, any number of plastic bands may be placed around the fence section. Usually, one to two bands are preferred to secure the fence section together. Once banded, the fence section moves along a second area of rollers towards the end of the assembly line and into a shipping box. Once the fence sections are installed at the site, the bands can be readily cut and removed.
In addition to the novel features and advantages mentioned above, other objects and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent from the following descriptions of the drawings and exemplary embodiments.